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Comfort Zone
Fourth in the Vincent Calvino P.I. Series
Saigon--The American embargo
is lifted. Business is booming in Vietnam and in austere Ho Chi
Minh City a new generation of foreigners have come to make money
and not war.
In Saigon, a young American lawyer
Drew Markle uncovers corruption and fraud in the emerging business
world in which his clients are dealing. He turns to his brother,
Harry, an ex-special forces vet, for advice. Before Calvino leaves
Bangkok on the assignment, there are two murders, one in Saigon
and one in Bangkok. Thai Police Lieutenant Colonel Prachai Chongwatana
("Pratt") is under pressure from the Royal Thai Police
Department to solve the Bangkok murder quickly. During the course
of his investigation, Pratt discovers evidence to link the Bangkok
and Saigon murders.
For private eye Vincent Calvino,
the journey to Vietnam offers the chance to under the identity of
the killers. Also there is a larger opportunity waiting for him
in Saigon. While on the case, he discovers a way to break free of
the ice-like grip of the Comfort Zone, that archipelago of bars
and massage parlors of Bangkok, where feelings are forever frozen
solid behind the smiles.
First edition (1995) / 2nd
edition (1997) / Current edition (2001) Heaven Lake Press, 267 pp.
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| "Saigon--twenty years after the
end of the Vietnam War, the country is opening up to the outside
world. There is the smell of fast money in the air and poverty
in the streets. Against the backdrop of Vietnam's economic miracle,
Christopher G. Moore tells a taut, compelling story of a divided
people still not reconciled with their past and unsure of their
future."
--The Bangkok Post
“Standing head-and-shoulders
above the rest is resident author Christopher G. Moore, whose
works of fiction demonstrate his broad knowledge of the Realm.
His expat protagonists have problems adjusting to the culture,
but are the better for being tamed by it. However well they
learn to speak the language and practice local customs, they
are never accepted as Thais.”
–Bernard Trink, Bangkok
Post, Sunday Magazine
“Moore hits home with more of everything in
Comfort Zone. There is a balanced mix of story-line, narrative,
wisdom, knowledge as well as love, sex, and murder.”
–Thailand Times
“Comfort Zone is a good read.”
–Accent Thai
“Comfort Zone is a murder mystery with a plot
that is better executed than any Central Intelligence Agency
black bag operation, the Bangkok expatriate crowd have moved
to boomtown Saigon. Like a Japanese gardener who captures
the land and the sky and recreates it in the backyard, Moore’s
genius is in portraying the Southeast Asian heartscape behind
the tourist industry hotel gloss.”
–The Daily Yumiuri
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